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26-07-2013

ARA News

Tel Abyad, Raqqa, Syria −On Wednesday, bulldozers belong to the brigades of the extremist organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) demolished a number of residential buildings in the city of Tel Abyad in Raqqa province, north Syria.

The buildings, located in the Kurdish populated neighborhood of al-Layl, were damaged as the Islamist fighters carried out a campaign of destruction and displacement against the Kurdish residents in the area under the pretext that the targeted families support a Kurdish political agenda in the region.

Tel Abyad’s most harmed families −due to the devastating campaign− are the Kurdish families of Kishtan, Muslim, Ibrahim Khalil and Afar.

Sources in the city confirmed to ARA News that the Islamic armed battalions will continue their operations untill destroying all houses, public and private places of citizens in the city.

“The ISIS fighters threaten that those who have any ties with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will be mercilessly targeted,” an eyewitness of the destruction in Tel Abyad told ARA News.

Earlier this month, houses of Kurdish civil activists have also been raided by the Islamist fighters in the city of Tel Abyad. Those who could not escape beforehand were arrested by members of the ISIS and taken to an unknown destination, sources said.

Ahmad Sadoun, a Kurdish activist and resident of Tel Abyad, told ARA News that the majority of Kurdish activists were forced to leave the area, while many others have been arrested by the Islamic ISIS group. “Among those who escaped were media activists and artists,” said Sadoun.

Khabat Abduljalil Hasan is a civil activist and Kurdish calligrapher who participated in making the boards that were being raised in the first days of the popular anti-regime movement in Damascus.

Hasan left Damascus before more than a year and resorted to Tel Abyad to avoid a similar destiny as his fellow activists −who were arbitrarily arrested and seriously tortured.

In Tel Abyad, he continued his activities as pro-revolution calligrapher. However, his critical position towards the Islamic forces caused him many problems and forced him to escape.

“Khabat Hasan stayed in my house in Tel Abyad over months. We organized many demonstrations together,” said Sadoun. “Unfortunately, the recent crackdown of the Islamic groups against Kurdish activists in Tel Abyad led him to leave the city and look for shelter in Turkey.”

According to Sadoun, the majority of the Syrian Kurdish youth is being forced to escape the country.

“This is the biggest dilemma the Syrian Kurdish areas face at the moment,” Sadoun added, preferring not to mention where he currently hides.

In other developments, armed brigades coming from the city of Manbej, in the northeast of Aleppo, tried to loot wheat in Sirin area in the city of Tel Abyad, leading to fierce clashes between them and the Kurdish forces of the Popular Protection Units (YPG). The incident paralyzed the movement between al-Sukariya area and the city of Tel Abyad, sources told ARA News.

Remarkably, since the clashes started in the city of Tel Abyad on Saturday, July 20, people −particularly the Kurdish majority− of the city are exposed to terrorist attacks and looting on the hands of the ISIS forces and other battalions belonging to the Free Syrian Army (FSA).